LEO seeks to reverse "no guns in parks" conviction

Posted by David Hardy · 25 August 2010 02:56 PM

Story here. The quirk about DC area roads is that many are technically elongated national parks, so before the law was changed people could wind up charged with illegally having a gun in a park when they'd just seen it as driving down a highway in Virginia or Maryland, while in full compliance with State law.

I think this article said the gun was loaded. But if the gun was unloaded and locked properly, would the federal law granting exemptions to local laws for persons passing through have protected him in this case?

Looks like FOPA makes state law nule and void, but does not address Federal Law...

Sec. 926A. Interstate transportation of firearms

Notwithstanding any other provision of any law or any rule or
regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof, any person
who is not otherwise prohibited by this chapter from transporting,
shipping, or receiving a firearm shall be entitled to transport a
firearm for any lawful purpose from any place where he may lawfully
possess and carry such firearm to any other place where he may lawfully
possess and carry such firearm if, during such transportation the
firearm is unloaded, and neither the firearm nor any ammunition being
transported is readily accessible or is directly accessible from the
passenger compartment of such transporting vehicle: Provided, That in
the case of a vehicle without a compartment separate from the driver's
compartment the firearm or ammunition shall be contained in a locked
container other than the glove compartment or console.

Due to a quirk in the location of my apartment, during some road construction a few years back I actually could not leave my apartment on foot without walking through a couple feet of national park.
I always figured that would be a fun court case if I ever got busted.

What's also fun is that part of the GW Parkway in VA actually crosses into DC for a little bit (Columbia Island). So technically even now carry is illegal on that short stretch even though there's no sign telling you that you just left VA (or went back into it).